Semcasting, creators of the patented IP, location, and device-targeting Smart Zones technology, announced the general availability of Activate, its self-serve, end-to-end identity (ID) resolution, audience design, and attribution platform.

The Activate platform was built in direct response to the demand for better control and more transparency in the management of first-party data. At a time when scrutiny over privacy has increased, brands are more cautious about the handling of their customer relationship management (CRM) data assets. Frustration with black box digital onboarding processes and a need for better match rates with faster time-to-market is driving brands to consider cookie-free alternatives.

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Rather than attempting to create a cookie replacement or a universal ID that would simply re-engineer current vulnerabilities and only exacerbate privacy concerns, Activate has introduced the concept of a federated ID where every user on every platform has their own unique ID for each use. This distributed ID solution protects both consumers and marketers, reducing the risk that other vendors or platforms can compromise or misappropriate a brands’ first-party data.

The Activate federated ID brings an unprecedented level of privacy control to users through their brand relationships. Marketers’ first-party data is loaded locally, de-identified in the matching process, and then synced to the unique user ID of each media platform. User data is never copied or stored. When the campaign is complete, Activate is able to resync media use of the IDs across multiple platforms in support of measurement and attribution. Activate is directly integrated with all leading buy- and sell-side platforms including Roku, Google, Xandr, Facebook, Adobe, and more.

Rob Rasko, founder and CEO of 614 Group, said, “It is critically important to brands that they are able to digitally activate their offline data in a safe and efficient manner. Traditional black box onboarding doesn’t work for most brands anymore. They want more control and insight into every digital audience they deploy. In many ways, Activate puts brand data owners back in charge, which is critical for the industry.”

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In addition to brand control, Activate’s cookie-free process delivers superior onboarding and audience design with a brand-friendly business model — a drastic improvement over the current industry standard, which can take three to five days with an average 40% match;

• Best-in-market time to market, onboarding data for activation within minutes;
• Increased match rates, averaging 85% with full transparency and non-duplicated IDs;
• Third-party data is integrated directly into the onboarding workflow, supporting the optimization of segments before dollars are wasted on trial and error impressions;
• Business model based on matched CRM records and usage, with no monthly minimums.

“Activate has dramatically reduced our time-to-market in the onboarding process. No more waiting a week or more for first-party data to be ready on a DSP or social platform,” said the audience team of the Bridgetree agency. “Activate is unique in that it merges onboarding with audience design, so we are able to layer third-party data onto first-party data to create unique, blended audiences, as well as draw polygon-based geofences and get device counts in as little as a couple of minutes. Overall we have better transparency into our first-party audiences and better-qualified reach.”

Activate’s third-party Audience Design workflow is integrated into the audience building process. Starting with an onboarded CRM file or a third-party segment, users can design, enhance, filter or suppress to optimize their audiences with more than 8600 demographic, behavioral or transactional attributes. Activate can combine location-based audience creation by drawing a polygon on a map to identify users in a specific, targeted area and overlaying demographic attributes and store purchase data.

Ray Kingman, founder, and CEO of Semcasting, declares, “Activate provides unprecedented transparency and control of the user’s digital identity for both the consumer and the brand. With more transparency, users have better choices with opt-in and opt-out and brands enhance their core relationship with customers. A cookie-free match process is required in this market at this time, but doing it with better matching and same-day time-to-market improves the efficiency of digital marketing.”

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